On book signings and why I stutter before awesomeness

Growing up, I never had the chance to go to book signings. Authors just didn't stop in my northern Illinois stomping grounds and my parents treated Chicago as if it were half a country away. So the first book signing I ever attended was in college. I was going through an "Evil Dead" phase and was pretty stoked when Bruce Campbell came to my college to talk about his book and show one of his movies. Nice guy. Wore a lot of cologne. Very, very tan. I could say more about this, but I'll save that for another time except to say that the mere mention of Bruce Campbell still makes me break into giggling fits nearly ten years later.

Last week, Shawntelle, Cole, and I went to see Maggie Stiefvater on her St. Louis stop on the book tour to promote her new novel FOREVER. For Maggie Stiefvater, there were lots of people in attendance. I was glad to have arrived early. I caught more than a few people not altogether happy to see that I had a little baby with me ("He better not cry," their sideways glances threatened). One caveat: Baby B is a shockingly quiet baby, and I wouldn't have brought him if I wasn't his soul food source and didn't expect him to be good. Maggie has mega stage presence. She knows how to tell a story on paper, but she can also tell one to a crowd. When she was finished with her stories and question-answer session, we all got in line and had our books sold. When she got to me, I entirely forgot anything I wanted to say to her and began stuttering. Yep. I'm one of those people. Nerves get the better of me. Fortunately, she realized I'm underslept and commented on how quiet Baby B was ("Wow, he's real after all!") and we talked for a moment about midnight mothering and writing time. Cole got flustered as well (because Maggie is a hero-author, after all), and Shawntelle...well, Shawny always makes an impression in the best of ways.


By the way, you can enter to win a signed copy of FOREVER over at Cole's blog and there will be another chance to win one at Pots n' Pens in the upcoming weeks!

So have you been to any book signings? Have any memories you'd like to share? Let me know in the comments!